Senator Joseph Biden's

Hypocritical rhetoric is in full swing. A few days ago he was dead set against the U.S. doing anything without UN approval. Today he says we should be bombing al Qaeda camps in northern Iraq. The turkeys are circling in Washington, D.C.

It's Not Boobs After All

Because Nelson Mandela knows it's all about oil. Frankly, this old saw is beginning to wear very thin. Mandela's illegitimate accusations are beyond ridiculous. And he's reaching gutter levels when he plays the race card again. I once admired this man but my admiration has turned to disgust.

So Says James Lileks:

Think of Saddam as Michael Jackson, and the UN as the crowd below - cheering, or gasping, or laughing, but doing nothing but taking pictures and wondering if they’ll be on the news tonight.

As he shreds idiotarian, Natalie Johnson Lee's Op-ed piece in the Skyway News.

It's All About Boobs, Not Oil

Says Australia's Margo Kingston.

ABC News: NASA Was Irresponsible

At least that's what an interview with John Macidull, a former investigator on the Challenger commission implies. ABC seems to be hunting the proverbial "smoking gun" to point at and blast someone but this isn't it. Macidull has some valid points and they should be well taken but his insistence that NASA could have ordered a telescopic inspection of the underbelly of Columbia is misguided and not credible. Even the best of telescopes would have probably not been able to discern damage because of atmospheric effects on resolution.

The EPA May Be

The root cause of the STS-107 crash. NASA reformulated the foam insulation in 1997 to be more environmentally friendly. The new foam apparently didn't adhere to the fuel tank as well and has caused tile damage to at least two other orbiters, STS-86 and 87.

President Bush: We Lost Them So Close To Home

"Their mission was almost complete and we lost them so close to home. The men and women of the Columbia had journeyed more than 6 million miles and were minutes away from arrival and reunion.

"The lose was sudden and terrible, and for their families the grief is heavy.

"Our nation shares in your sorrow and in your pride.

"We remember not only one moment of tragedy, but seven lives of great purpose and achievement.

"To leave behind Earth and air and gravity is an ancient dream of humanity. For these seven it was a dream fulfilled. Each of these astronauts had the daring and discipline required of their calling.

"Each of them knew that great endeavors are inseparable from great risks. And each of them accepted those risks willingly, even joyfully, in the cause of discovery.

"Rick Husband was a boy of four when he first thought of being an astronaut. As a man and having become an astronaut, he found it was even more important to love his family and serve his Lord.

"One of Rick's favorite hymns was "How Great Thou Art," which offers these words of praise: "I see the stars. I hear the mighty thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed."

"David Brown was first drawn to the stars as a little boy with a telescope in his backyard. He admired astronauts, but as he said: 'I thought they were movie stars. I thought I was kind of a normal kid.' David grew up to be a physician, an aviator who could land on the deck of a carrier in the middle of the night and a shuttle astronaut.

"His brother asked him several weeks ago, what would happen if something went wrong on their mission? David replied, "This program will go on."

"Michael Anderson always wanted to fly planes and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Along the way, he became a role model, especially for his two daughters and for the many children he spoke to in schools.

"He said to them, 'Whatever you want to be in life, you're training for it now.'

"He also told his minister, 'If this thing doesn't come out right, don't worry about me, I'm just going on higher.'

"Laurel Salton Clark was a physician and a flight surgeon who loved adventure, loved her work, loved her husband and her son. A friend who heard Laurel speaking to mission control said, 'There was a smile in her voice.'

"Laurel conducted some of the experiments as Columbia orbited the Earth and described seeing new life emerge from a tiny cocoon.

"'Life,' she said, 'continues in a lot of places, and life is a magical thing.'

"None of our astronauts traveled a longer path to space than Kalpana Chawla. She left India as a student, but she would see the nation of her birth, all of it, from hundreds of miles above.

"When the sad news reached her hometown, an administrator at her high school recalled, 'She always said she wanted to reach the stars.' She went there and beyond.

"Kalpana's native country mourns her today and so does her adopted land.

"Ilan Ramon also flew above his home, the land of Israel. He said, 'The quiet that envelops space makes the beauty even more powerful, and I only hope that the quiet can one day spread to my country.'

"Ilan was a patriot, the devoted son of a Holocaust survivor, served his country in two wars.

"'Ilan,' said his wife Rona, 'left us at his peak moment, in his favorite place, with people he loved.'

"The Columbia's pilot was Commander Willy McCool, whom friends knew as the most steady and dependable of men. In Lubbock today, they're thinking back to the Eagle Scout who became a distinguished naval officer and a fearless test pilot.

"One friend remembers Willy this way, 'He was blessed, and we were blessed to know him.'

"Our whole nation was blessed to have such men and women serving in our space program. Their loss is deeply felt, especially in this place where so many of you called them friends, the people in NASA are being tested once again.

"In your grief, you are responding as your friends would have wished, with focus, professionalism and unbroken faith in the mission of this agency."

"... [T]hey go in peace for all mankind, and all mankind is in their debt.

"Yet, some explorers do not return, and the law settles unfairly on a few.

"The families here today shared in the courage of those they loved, but now they must face life and grief without them. The sorrow is lonely, but you are not alone.

"In time, you will find comfort and the grace to see you through. And in God's own time, we can pray that the day of your reunion will come.

"And to the children who miss your mom or dad so much today, you need to know, they love you, and that love will always be with you.

"They were proud of you, and you can be proud of them for the rest of your life.

"The final days of their own lives were spent looking down upon this earth, and now, on every continent, in every land they can see, the names of these astronauts [are] known and remembered.

"They will always have an honored place in the memory of this country, and today, I offer the respect and gratitude of the people of the United States.

"May God bless you all."

Good Morning America

Had a retired NASA engineer on the air this morning. I think Diane Sawyer thought she was going to get a "smoking gun" statement from him. The guy, whose name I have forgotten, claimed to have told President Bush that the shuttle was an accident waiting to happen. No elaboration on what his concerns were other than lack of escape mechanisms for the crew. During the interview, he admitted that it probably would have been impossible for the crew to escape at the altitude where the accident happened in any circumstance. So, nothing was gained from his insite. The blame game has already started and there are many who will try to pin it on President Bush.

It's Beginning To Look Like

Overheating on the left wing and increased drag is what brought Columbia down. There's been a lot of wild speculation about the cause of the crash but it's looking more and more like the insulation that broke off and hit the orbiter during the boost phase is the culprit.

I've been keeping up with events as much as possible even though I had to pull an all nighter at work last Saturday and Sunday. I'm still recovering from staying awake for a day and a half. As I put on years, it takes longer and longer to recuperate from these weekend shindigs.

I read Lileks every day and his Monday bleat is, as usual, superb. I was a little surprised to see him begin with helium balloons but he quickly segued into his usual superb style, blasting the naysayers who think robots should take over space travel. Here's part of it:

Instapundit is my homepage, and that’s where I read the news: the shuttle is overdue. That could only have meant one thing. It’s not an Amtrak train. It’s not a car stuck in traffic. It was gone and they were dead. I turned on the TV, and called my friend the Giant Swede; he saw caller ID and knew exactly what I was calling about. We talked about it without saying anything, because there’s nothing to say but you have to say it all anyway.

The rest of the day I listened to the radio. NPR had an interview with one of those people who think we should not send people into space, but rely entirely on robots. As I pulled into the parking lot at the mall he casually asked “what can a man do on Mars that a robot cannot?”

PLANT A FUCKING FLAG ON THE PLANET, I shouted at the radio. Pardon my language. But. On a day when seven brave people died while fulfilling their brightest ambitions, this was the wrong day to suggest we all stay tethered to the dirt until the sun grows cold. Are we less than the men who left safe harbors and shouldered through cold oceans? After all, they sailed into the void; we can look up at the night sky and point at where we want to go. There: that bright white orb. We’re going. There: that red coal burning on the horizon. We’re going. And we’re not sending smart toys on our behalf - we’re sending human beings, and one of them will put his boot on the sand and bring the number of worlds we’ve visited to three. And when he plants the flag he will use flesh and sinew and blood and bone to drive it into the ground. His heartbeat will hammer in his ears; his mind will spin a kaleidoscopic medley of all the things he’d thought he’d think at this moment, and he'll grin: I had it wrong. I had no idea what it would truly be like. He’d imagined this moment as oddly private; he'd thought of himself, the red land, the flag in his hand, and he heard music, as though the moment would be fully scored when it happened. But there isn't any music; there's the sound of his breath and the thrum of his pulse. It seems like everyone who ever lived is standing behind him at the other end of a vast dark auditorium, waiting for the flag to stand on the ground of Mars. Then he will say something. He might stumble on a word or two, because he’s only human.

But look what humans have done. Again.

After that, there's nothing left to say.